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Plenty of surprises on this survey. Historical or contemporary enemies (Vietnam, China, Russia, Philippines, perhaps even Mexico) are balanced or outright favourable compared to Northern & Northwestern Europe.
It's not a contradiction, but it's still unintuitive.
As a Canadian living in Australia, I am satisfied with Canada, minus Alberta. As for Australia, I am afraid of what might become reality at the next election.
I am afraid of what might become reality at the next election.
This applies to way too many countries these days ...
I'm reasonably sanguine, compulsory voting counts for a lot and Pauline is extremely prone to foot cannoning, see her recent Press Club speech for examples.
There is a large corporate interest backing Pauline.
All her smartarse comments scripted by “CongaLine of Suckholes” Latham are getting press coverage and all the incredibly stupid comments she is ejaculating are being swept under the carpet.
Careful there. All over the world people have been disregarding populist candidates like Pauline.
You're right that shes imploded a couple of times in the past, but shes learned a thing or 2, she has some wealthy and powerful supporters, and things are different in 2026.
I actually though her press club performance would've been a roaring success from her perspective. As with Trump, she just can't have negative exposure.
While I doubt she will ever be PM, shes going to wield some power in the Australian political landscape in the coming years.
All over the world people have been disregarding populist candidates like Pauline.
Not wrong, but all over the world does not have compulsory voting (AU and Belgium only I think). For all we have some vociferous reactionary racist gobshites, it's a small minority and we have a lot less of an apathy failure to vote problem to balance it. Add to that a high proportion of immigrants, a solidly left leaning younger demographic and Trump's example and I don't see much traction, no matter how much Murdoch media beats it's drum. At worst they'll become a very junior coalition member, which will likely do more harm than good to the right wing in the long run.
I'm not saying the following to argue, but to add caveats and challenge assumptions.
Not wrong, but all over the world does not have compulsory voting
I see some other people treating compulsory voting as an anchor, but we're seeing a prolonged shift away from the dominance of Coalition and Labor. We're talking about a reactionary politician promoted by plenty of mainstream mass media outlets with astronomical funding - many casual apathetic forced-voters will be exposed to more of her populist policies and less of her terrible perspectives and Gina-service than we see. Especially if everyday people like us don't talk to people about it.
Add to that a high proportion of immigrants
Many immigrants will vote for One Nation. It sounds unintuitive, but there are plenty who openly support Hanson. They've already immigrated, and might trivialise the racist attitudes of the party in support of other gripes, especially if they feel association with Australia and see themselves accepted as "one of the good ones". One Nation is a racist party, but as a whole, it's selectively racist: they will back candidates from most non-Arab ethnicities and have elected immigrants [admittedly not the best example].
a solidly left leaning younger demographic
Yes, but that doesn't outweigh the larger, solidly right-leaning older demographic. Unfortunately Wikipedia haven't updated their table since 2016 and I cbf summing the numbers on the ABS population pyramid, so I'm happy to be contradicted.
Also consider that (judging by the first line of the ABS 2024 age/region summary plus my own assumption) younger populations are likely to be concentrated in cities, reducing the influence of a young vote on suburban and rural electoral seats.
and Trump’s example
And that's been a useful tactic in dissuading ON prospectives, according to GetUp!, which to me also implies that plenty of people don't recognise the similarity of Trump's USA and Pauline's ON.
So, my perspective is, we should be optimistic and confident, but we must not be complacent and passive. These points you make only work if politically-informed people share our knowledge with the apathetic. And this doesn't have to be preachy or direct, even passive exposure and "didjyahearabout" conversations will accumulate.
So, my perspective is, we should be optimistic and confident, but we must not be complacent and passive.
I can get behind that. I certainly don't intend to do nothing. 'Oh, the Aussie Trump' has passed my lips more than once.
You raise good points of which I am not unaware, although I'd suggest (technofuedalist controlled) social media is more a threat, and sadly more intractable, than Murdoch et.al. today (not sure what scope you meant by mass media).
That's a great point about social media, especially considering the biggest examples (Meta group, Twitter) are owned by some of the most ultrawealthy people on Earth, with technofeudal ambitions. I was thinking about more traditional media so I'm glad you emphasised social media.
One nation are polling higher than the major parties and she is rating highest as preferred prime minister. I expect it to be like reform, where they get more seats than they have ever had, but still not much. However, what’s shocking is how quickly they got that support, despite all their policies being anti their supporters. Except when you add racism. We have lots more racists than you think. America found that out the hard way. We’re on track for similar.
Yeah, the 2PP (Coalition/ON - doesn't matter which) still gives the ALP a massive majority.
Hang on. If the Coalition and ON send their preferences to each other, won't they beat Labor?
The polls I've seen lately show Labor in the 30s%, and Coalition and ON around 20% each, which if you add them together =40%
Being from the us, i don't see us very favourably either.
I’m amazed how high Vietnam is.
My theory on Vietnam, Philippines, and India is that they think of the US as a favourable migration destination, and probably have relatives or contacts living there.
Also their political class is worse than Trump.
Vietnamese people are more sanguine about the war. They believe that it was a disagreement and it turned violent and it is over. No different to how Germany France and Britain are now all allies. The timeline for the Vietnam war is no different to those countries in the 90s.
Pretty weird, they should hate us so much. Maybe we've been nice to them to make up for being silly gooses. I don't remember hearing about that in social studies though.
Wild that Mexico has a (barely) favorable opinion in this poll.
